With his stylish demeanour, actor and model Dinesh Mohan carries his trademark torn jeans as well as he does his handlebar moustache. The 61-year-old ‘silver fox’ — as his Instagram account descriptor says — has been part of photo shoots, ramp walks, and will soon be seen in a Malayalam film Rosario Family Since 1973 and Salman Khan’s Bharat.
Behind the now-chiselled photographs, lies an incredible story of the will to fight his eating disorder, and the resulting weight gain. On call from his home in Gurugram, Dinesh narrates how five years ago, ill and bedridden at 130 kilograms, and fed up of being in a “rotten state”, he decided to change his life.
Dinesh Mohan was happily working as a government officer and he was married which was arranged by his parents. But later, he started getting problems in that relationship due to the opposite opinion. He wasn’t accepted the way he was and Dinesh thought walking out of the toxic relationship is the only option he is left with. But in between, it took the childhood of an innocent kid who was his son. The hatred towards his father is one of the unbearable pain which he had to deal with. After some time of Dinesh’s divorce, his wife died and Dinesh’s son came to live with him. Few months after staying with his dad, his son realized he isn’t the bad person. They stayed together for 6 months until his son died due to rabies. At that point in time, he gave up everything and decided to take Voluntary retirement and moved to his sister and brother-in-law’s house.
For 12 years, Dinesh was in depression and dealt with many physical problems like diabetes, blood pressure, and obesity. He had an eating disorder which resulted in gaining 125 kgs. And at last, for 8 months he was on the bed and tired of being in a rotten state. One day, his brother-in-law came into his room and asked him to live his life and move on. After hearing this from his brother-in-law, he decided to join swimming and gym simultaneously and lost 55 kgs. And for his mental health, he went to a psychiatrist. There was this small incident that happened with Dinesh’s life, when his neighbour who was a journalist by occupation, decided to write about the transformation and published it.
This article went viral and he was called by a modelling agency in Delhi. On his birthday 16th January 2016, He got the first modelling assignment. After that everything changed and now he works for bigger projects and showed how little hope of light in life can change everything.
